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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

UPDATE: Additional Details Apodaca Prison Riot-70 Dead?

Rumors persist of the number of deaths being much greater than reported. Below are two articles containing updated information...Paz, Chivis

Apodaca Prison Warden and Guards being escorted during detention

Just
after 1 a.m., the guards opened the doors, and 30 men climbed up to guard tower
No. 6 of the state prison outside the northern city of Monterrey. One by one,
they slipped down ropes to waiting vehicles

Just
after the men made their escape into the surrounding mountains, more guards
opened more doors. This time, they let inmates belonging to the Zetas criminal
gang surge from Cellblock C into Cellblock D, where their rivals in the Gulf
Cartel were sleeping.

Over
the next hour, Nuevo León State officials say, 44 prisoners — all believed to
be part of the Gulf Cartel — were bludgeoned, beaten and stabbed to death.

Only
two hours after the events began Sunday did jail officials at the Apodaca
Prison alert state officials and the army.

“By
the time we had the call for help, it was already past 3 in the morning, two
hours after the escape and the fight,” said Jorge Domene, the state security
spokesman, describing Sunday morning’s events. “By the time help arrived in
response to the call, almost all the deaths had taken place,” he said,
indicating that prison security cameras showed that more than 200 inmates had
participated in the killings.

Officials
in Nuevo León State said the jailbreak and the massacre had been carried out by
the Zetas, the violent gang of drug enforcers who have turned against their
former bosses in the Gulf Cartel and spread their reach over large parts of
northern Mexico and the Gulf Coast.

The
Zetas appeared to have the authorities at the Apodaca prison under their
control. Investigators continued to question security guards Tuesday, and Mr.
Domene told a radio interviewer that as many as 16 guards and officials had
been implicated, including the prison’s warden, Gerónimo Miguel Andrés
Martínez, and its chief of security, Óscar Deveze Laureano.

At
least nine guards confessed to aiding the escape and the massacre directly and
admitted that they had received $780 to $1,560 a month from the Zetas.

Officials
said Tuesday that two men and a woman were stabbed to death Monday as they were
waiting to be admitted to the Topo Chico jail, which is also in the state of
Nuevo León.

The
violence and corruption in Mexico’s overcrowded prison system have burst into
public view with regularity since President Felipe Calderón started his
crackdown on drug gangs more than five years ago.

In
May 2009, 53 prisoners, many of them Zetas, walked out of a jail in the state
of Zacatecas as guards looked on. In December 2010, 151 prisoners escaped from
the jail in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas. In July that year, the
director of a prison in the northern city of Gómez Palacio was accused of
allowing gangs out of the prison to commit murder-for-hire jobs using prison
guards’ weapons and vehicles.

Of
the 30 men who escaped early Sunday, 25 were convicted of federal crimes, said
the Nuevo León governor, Rodrigo Medina. Among the escapees was Óscar Manuel
Bernal Soriana, known as the Spider. Officials said he was a local Zeta leader
with a reputation for bloodthirstiness who may have planned the jailbreak and
ensuing massacre.

In
his first comments on the Apodaca incident, Mr. Calderón said Tuesday that the
prison systems in some states were “in crisis” and that the federal government
was building new prisons, “an effort that has not been made in 20 years in
Mexico.”

SOURCE: NYT

The following from Wikipedia:

A woman attends wake of a loved one killed in the Apodaca prison riot

The Apodaca prison riot was a
deadly brawl that occurred on 19 February 2012 at a prison in Apodaca, Nuevo
León, Mexico.Mexico City officials stated that at least 44
people were killed, with another twelve injured.The Blog
del Narco, a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously,
reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 70 people.

The fight was between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two drug cartels
that operate in northeastern Mexico.The governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina,
mentioned on 20 February 2012 that more than 30 inmates escaped from the prison
during the riot.One of the
fugitives, Oscar Manuel alias La Araña ("The Spider"), is
considered by the Mexican authorities to be "extremely dangerous,"
and is believed to be the leader of Los Zetas in the municipality of Monterrey.

The fight broke out around 2:00 a.m.
local time between inmates in one high security cell block and inmates of
another security cell block. The guards of the prison allowed the Zeta members
to surge from Cellblock C into Cellblock D and attack the Gulf Cartel members,
who were sleepingA guard was taken hostage during the melee,
and mattresses were set on fire.

Security personnel regained control of the
prison by 6:00 a.m.Each cell block contained roughly 750 inmates,
with members of rival drug cartels normally separatedNot
all the prisoners were able to be counted, by the time the dead prisoners were
counted, leading a public security spokesperson to speculate that the riot may
have been started as a cover for a jail break.

It was
later confirmed that the riot and brawl "served as cover for a massive
jailbreak" for the members of the Zetas drug cartel, who attacked the Gulf
Cartel inmates According to the The
Wall Street Journal, the incident may be the deadliest prison riot in
Mexican history.

El Universal mentioned that the prison
riot in Apodaca has been the "gravest in the past five years" in
Mexico.Milenonews, in addition, mentioned that the prisons
in the state of Nuevo León are plagued with violence, and that they are
"under the control of the criminal groups" that operate in the area.

The Apodaca prison was built to
house 1,500 inmates, but had around 3,000 incarcerated at the time of the riot."Worried and weeping relatives"
gathered outside the prison to wait for news.After the split of the Gulf Cartel and Los
Zetas in early 2010, both groups have been battling for Monterrey and other
areas in northeastern Mexico .

Plus the govt will want to play it down as they always have been doing in Mexico, building new prisons now after 20 years fk me they cannot be stupid in Mexico they just don't give a shit as this problem had been building long before Calderon got power, ain't his fault everyone just kept turning a blind eye to the cartels. I believe Chivas I've heard 70 too the news channels telediario never give out about the zetas so their news facts in my opinion is bullshit and the underground news such as this & blog del narco are more reliable & informative though milenio is better than their sister channel multimedios

All and all maby not such a bad thing,except for the poor people waiting to visit.The elimination of 50-65+- crininals OK,but the continuing Mess of Mexican prisons is mind boggeling this has been going on ever since Mexico has had prisons, say 100 years?? Is this a Mexican thing?? What is so hard ??

If Mexican Army is smart enough, they would start shoot 2 kill. You take a life they should get the same. Show who's boss or are you man enough? Would not happen here in the U.S., except we put those in prison here and it cost us hardworking people,tax paying to put up with your shit so you can have a nice place to sleep and food in your stomach. When you take a life you should just get the same punishment.

nice place to sleep? Really! Why don't you ask Peter Jennings how nice of a place prision is. He spent one night in jail doing a story and still has nightmares from what he heard through out the night. Look it up on youtube ....

im from texas and got arrested once in matamoros,scariest shit I went through,if it was not pay day or if my friends did not have my back I would be another dead fool....... but I knocked the fuck outta that cop lol.....Ll

This Shit just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on

hahahahaha damn right... the mexican national security system is pathetic!! god i love america and kudos to the russians who may not have much liberty but at least there prisons arent overpowered lol:p